Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 8, 2025 25 IRISH BRING THE HEAT AGAINST BC'S QUARTERBACKS In the second half of a game that was still only decided by one score — bear in mind Notre Dame was around a 30-point favorite — the Fighting Irish needed something to go well defensively to make up for the points the Notre Dame offense was leaving on the field and off the scoreboard. They unearthed it in the form of a de- bilitating pass rush and containment of the quarterback that sure made Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman proud. Nine quarterback hurries. Five sacks. A whole lot of pressure on Boston Col- lege quarterback Grayson James that even he, a gifted athlete known to get loose with his legs, couldn't overcome. James was credited with seven rush- ing attempts that weren't sacks. The longest of those runs went for 4 yards. That was it. When he wasn't being dragged down behind the line of scrimmage, James wasn't advancing too far beyond it as a runner. That was a major point of emphasis from Freeman going into the matchup, even with the Irish knowing it would be Dylan Lonergan who started. The Irish still had to be ready for James. And they were. "When they put the other guy in, James in, we just knew there was more running elements to what they would do, running the ball," Freeman said. "And so, we had to make sure that we got that communicated and executed on the field." The sacks came from all over. Line- backers Drayk Bowen and Jaylen Sneed each had 1, as did defensive end Joshua Burnham. Linebacker Kyngstonn Vil- iamu-Asa paced the team with 1.5, and defensive end Bryce Young chipped in with the remaining 0.5. There were points in the game when it was still close enough for Boston College to do something offensively to flip the script at little. For instance, the Eagles had a 21-play, 74-yard drive to begin the second half. But instead of scoring a touchdown and taking the lead, Notre Dame held them to a field goal. Subsequently, Boston College never had the lead all afternoon. When a team is getting after the quarterback and only giving up 10 points by the end of a 60-minute game, it's hard to have the advantage against that at any time. "We're just relentless," Viliamu-Asa said. "It's never going to be perfect, but we're relentless to put our offense in a great situation and get off the field." That offense still has to do its job and put points on the board, and that didn't happen often enough by Freeman's own admission. But just in the way Notre Dame left Alumni Stadium after its 25-10 victory, feeling like it could have been so much better, James and Boston College had to have been thinking they ran into a complete buzzsaw of a defense. BOSTON COLLEGE GAME NOTES BY TYLER HORKA AND JACK SOBLE Redshirt junior defensive end Joshua Burnham was one of five Fighting Irish players to register at least half a sack against Boston College. PHOTO BY NICK GRACE MISCELLANEOUS NOTES • Notre Dame improved to 19-9 against Boston College, including a 7-4 mark in true road games. The Fighting Irish have now won 10 straight games against the Eagles, the longest win streak in the history of the series. • Notre Dame retained possession of the Frank Leahy Memorial Trophy, which dates back to 1975 to commemorate the winner of the Notre Dame-Boston College game. • Head coach Marcus Freeman is now 2-0 against Boston College, 14-2 against ACC teams and 6-2 in true ACC road games. • The 40-yard touchdown throw to redshirt senior wide receiver Malachi Fields followed by the 44-yard strike to redshirt senior wide receiver Will Pauling in the first half by redshirt freshman quar- terback CJ Carr marked the second time this season he threw a pair of scoring passes of 40 or more yards in a game this season. Carr also found Fields (66 yards) and Jordan Faison (48) for long touchdown passes against Purdue Sept. 20. • Notre Dame has intercepted at least two passes in each of the last four games, the best streak for the Irish since the 1995 team intercepted two passes in each game over a five-game stretch from Oct. 21 through Jan. 1. The 12 passes intercepted by the Irish defense over the last four games are the most for the program over four games since 1977, when the team also intercepted 12 in four games from Oct. 15 through Nov. 5. That '77 team intercepted 13 passes over a four-game streak as well.